The religious order founded by Saint Katharine Drexel is selling the suburban Philadelphia estate containing the order's motherhouse and the shrine with the saint's tomb.

The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament are also selling 2,000 acres in Powhatan, Virginia, the site of two now-closed schools for black students.

Sister Donna Breslin, president of the order, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the properties are too large for the order's current and future needs. She said the decision to sell was made "after prayer, study and reflection."

Thousands come each year to visit the shrine to Drexel, a wealthy Philadelphia socialite and heiress who vowed to live in poverty and educate American Indians and blacks.

Drexel died in 1955, and in 2000 she became the second American-born person to be canonized.